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July 31, 2003
In the beginning: TTC
I had gone off the pill in December and started using the FAM method for birth control. My TCOYF book became my new best friend and I was enjoying my newfound knowledge and awareness of my body and cycles. Like I said in my intro, we were still planning to wait until August to start trying, so I was giving my body lots of time to adjust back to normal after being on the pill for years. Much to my delight, I ovulated every cycle right from the beginning. I was hopeful since my periods were so regular before being on the pill, but pleasantly surprised nonetheless.
Fast forward to May, our first TTC cycle. I was overconfident, and thought that we'd be one of those lucky couples you hear about that gets pregnant on the first try. That is, until my O was delayed due to a horrid cold, and then I came down with a UTI shortly afterwards. I was put on Macrobid, an antibiotic that's safe during PG, just in case. The 2WW (two-week wait) was torture. I obsessed all day, every day. I was on Babymed.com checking potential due dates, looking for phantom symptoms, imagining sore boobs, you name it. AF was overdue -- since O was delayed and my luteal phase was the same length, my cycle was longer overall -- another thing that made me obsess. But my temp dropped and I had spotting. So stupid me in my obsessive state, thought, "OH! It must be the implantation dip and spotting!" Not so. Believe it or not, I even tested at this point. I was that obsessed. Seeing the negative test (both of them) was such a letdown. I couldn't imagine how hard it would be to have to TTC for a long time like so many couples have to. Cycle #1 was hard enough. AF showed up two days later and we were onto cycle #2.
Thankfully, this cycle was textbook. I O'd on time, we BD'd everyday leading up to and even after O, and I wasn't struck with illness or infection. Things were looking good. I'd even doubled up on my efforts and bought an ovulation predictor kit to be extra sure. I knew I O'd regularly, I was pretty sure DH's boys were healthy, so there was no reason why we couldn't do this. I was determined.
The 2WW this time was slightly less torturous. I avoided TTC sites on the net and didn't let myself think about it too much. Since my last cycle was messed up, I allowed a couple of extra days before I would let myself test. On 14 dpo, my temp went way up. I went and bought a test that evening, a Friday.
The Big Discovery
(copied directly from a post on TFY, so sorry if some of you have already read this!)
Saturday morning I woke up rather early since I was excited to take my temp and then maybe test. It was about an hour earlier than usual and I couldn't get back to sleep easily, so I took my temp and it was higher than ever. I remember thinking, "just go back to sleep now and test when you wake up later." Yeah right. I had to pee like a racehorse and couldn't sleep anyway, so off I went to the bathroom with test kit in hand. Chris was still sleeping soundly at this point, since it was only about 6:30 am on a Saturday.
I peed on the stick and watched it. Sure enough, after less than a minute, there were two lines there - the control line strong and solid, the result line slightly lighter but not by much. I was elated! I had a little celebratory dance all by myself in the bathroom and stared at the stick in awe for a few more minutes.
I didn't know what to do with myself now. I didn't want Chris's reaction to be lessened by the fact that it was still really early and he'd be half-asleep if I woke him up. So I decided to go back to bed. I thought about leaving the test in the bathroom so that he'd see it when he got up, but then I decided to bring it into the bedroom and leave it on my bedside table so that I could show him as soon as he woke up. I laid there for about 20 minutes, until 7am (keep in mind this was Saturday, and we love to sleep in). Then I couldn't stand it any longer. I woke him up and just held the test in front of his face. "What's that?" he said. "It's positive!" I said excitedly. He took a closer look. "Are you sure? One line is lighter than the other." I fished the instructions out of the box and showed him that indeed, yes, it was positive. He grinned and said, "Uh oh," and we both laughed. After a couple more minutes of talking and laughing, we somehow went back to sleep for a bit longer. When we woke up later, we both couldn't believe it. It seemed surreal. We were like that all day Saturday. Kind of like, "yeah, we're pregnant. What's for lunch??" Then I had to go away overnight for my friend's stagette party at a cottage.
When I got back on Sunday, Chris's main concern was, "did you have to tell anyone why you weren't drinking?" Thankfully, it had been a really mellow party and we'd all sat around the bonfire in the dark and nobody noticed that all I drank was juice!
A day or two later, I still hadn't noticed any symptoms. Actually, there had been a few subtle ones that I would never have noticed if I hadn't been on the lookout for them. And in hindsight, the fact that I got exhausted (way more than usual) walking up the hill to my house the previous week might have been a symptom. I just thought I was way more out of shape than I'd believed. When I got home on the Friday, the day before I tested +, I had a nap in the afternoon (unusual for me). So maybe I was more tired. I also had really light cramping (similar to AF cramps, only way lighter) on Thursday, Friday and through the weekend.
We went to Chapters (like Barnes & Noble in the US) a few days later and bought two books: The Pregnancy Book by Dr. Sears and another little book that had very basic PG info but came with a little book of sewing/decorating and craft projects for baby and nursery that I just could not resist. Two of the ideas I plan to do: tie-dyed onesies, and making a plain round ricepaper hanging light into a mini hot-air balloon with ribbons, a little basket and tiny stuffed animals in the basket. It is so cute, and coincidentally I already have that kind of shade on the ceiling light in what will be the nursery. (I must warn you: there will be a lot written about decorating and renovating in my diary!) There are lots of other adorable things to make, and I will show my MIL the book. She is very into sewing and crafting, and will be SO excited to make stuff for the baby.
Telling the Parents (OK, this is brand-new material!)
We were going to Ottawa (where both sets of parents live) for the weekend of July 5 and 6 to attend a friend's wedding. Aside from this weekend, we didn't know when we'd see Chris's parents next, so we decided we'd better tell them then. I was only 5 weeks along at that point, so it was super early, but we didn't have much choice unless we wanted to tell them over the phone. And since we couldn't tell his folks without also telling mine, we made plans to make the big announcement all at once. We'd invite his parents over to my parents' house for lunch on the Sunday, and present them each with a grandparents card. There would be nothing suspicious about the lunch invite, since our parents have become pretty good friends over the course of our relationship, engagement and of course, at the wedding, etc.
His parents arrived and we all sat around chatting for a few minutes before we presented the cards. Chris said something like, "we wanted to give this to you on our first wedding anniversary as a thank you, but you'll be away so we have to do it now." So we handed them over, our moms opened them, and immediately my mom let out a gasp, covered her face with her hands and started bawling. Then she jumped up and hugged me. And hugged me again. My poor dad hadn't even seen the card yet! He got it out of her hands and said "Wow!" about six times before following suit and coming over for a hug. Chris's parents had a pretty similar reaction. His mom yelled "OMG!" and started jumping up and down. This will be their 5th grandchild, so they've done this all before, but there hasn't been a new one in, oh, ten years (Chris's brothers are much older than him). For my parents, however, this will be the first. Needless to say, they are very, very excited.
OK, so now I'm mostly caught up. My next entry will be about symptoms and plans and concerns and worries - all the things that come with the first trimester, I guess. Thanks for reading!
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